Creativity

04/19/2011

I wanted to pass this along, because it's HUGE! Julie Pritchard and Chris Cozen from The Land of Lost Luggage Network are giving away free art workshops for LIFE to one lucky winner!

Julie and Chris are full time artists who love to teach others, and if you've ever wanted to try your hand at an art class, they are a great resource. The classes are fabulous, fun, and easy to follow. The best thing about them is that because they're online, you take them when YOU have time. If you're a mom and 10 PM is the only time you don't have children hanging from your clothing, you have access at 10 PM. If you're a crazy early riser and you feel most creative at 4 AM, you have access at 4 AM. If you can only get creative on the weekends...well, you get the idea. Awesome perk for busy people!!

Here are the giveaway details, straight from Julie:

Try a class, you'll have a great time and add loads of creativity to your life. And don't miss out on this great giveaway opportunity, it's worth so much!

04/04/2011

For book and paper junkies like me and my daughter, Sunday's Book Arts Bazaar was a little slice of paradise. Part of the Maine Festival of the Book, the bazaar featured book and paper artists from all over Maine and New England, who displayed luscious handbound journals and books, vibrantly colored and deeply textured handmade papers, and handmade boxes with hidden folds and surprise compartments.

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Alison Kuller, 3 Stone Folios. Alison blew our minds with her intricately folded compartments and creatively bound journals. She graciously allowed my daughter to open everything. Each box or journal seemed to hold a little secret, and my daughter had a blast looking through each one.

Just a sampling of handmade paper by Virginia Sarsfield. Made from a mixture of plant and abaca fibers, and hand dyed.

Anna Low, of Purplebean Bindery, had one of my favorite tables. Her journals are so vibrant and colorful and I don't think any two are alike. She does custom book orders as well.

My homegirl Martha Kearsley from Strong Arm Bindery was in the house, with her expertly bound books, earthy prints, and cool stationary.

This was a cool table from Erin Sweeney of Lovely in The Home Press. One of my favorite concepts was a tiny canvas-paged journal with a mosaic tile cover (you can see it at the top of the photo). I imagined my friend Shelley, a button collector, using the canvas pages to pin and keep track of her favorite buttons.

...and my 8 year old daughter had a little moment with artist Scott Mullenberg, whose company creates sleek, gorgeous custom portfolios for visual artists. Scott displayed a table of industrial style black rubber covered journals, which my daughter loves. We bought a journal, met Scott, and as we walked away, she whispered, "I can't believe I got to meet the artist! I should have asked for his autograph." (I love it!!)

This highlights just a few of the artists who were in attendance--I can't begin to capture all of the talent in just one blog post. Overall, it was a great day with amazingly creative people. If you missed it, be sure to check it out next year!

04/03/2011

I was so excited to see a comment from Two Maine Moms saying that they'd selected me for a Stylish Blogger Award! What a great honor, and thank you so much!! Now it's my turn to return the favor to other bloggers that I think are special, as well.

Here are the rules for the bloggers I'm about to nominate:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself

3. Pay it forward and award 5-15 new bloggers a Stylish Blogger Award.

4. Contact the bloggers and let them know about their award

*If you make someone’s list twice then you are twice as stylish!! Now, go show a blogger some ♥!!

So here we go....

Thank you so much, Two Maine Moms, for nominating me for this great award!

04/02/2011

Over the years, my family has developed an understanding about me and cold weather. It goes something like this:

1. Mama likes the beach. Mama does not like cold or snow. She believes cold is torture. She will begin to whimper when the thermometer shrinks below 60.

2. If the temperature is below 20 and Mama has to be outside for any reason, she will hiss like a Rhesus Monkey.

3. Snow hurts when it gets on bare skin. And inevitably, Mama's the one who gets it in her boots, up her back and down into her butt crack, and packed into the space between her glove and sleeve. This makes Mama very cranky. This is when she begins to call for an adult beverage (preferably hot) and we know it's time to go indoors.

4. If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

So my daughter and I had a dilemma. With a spring snow storm and a day off from school upon us, how could we incorporate snow into our creative fun without actually having to be out IN it? The solution came like a ray of light from my friend Michelle---make sugar on snow!

We had a great time! Mama's happy, daughter's happy. Here's what you'll need to do if you'd like to try:

Step 1: Using a clean scoop, gather snow in a large flat pan.

(...not the yellow kind of snow.)

Step 2. Store the pan of snow in the freezer while you boil 8 oz of pure maple syrup in a large saucepan. It will foam up and try to boil over, so be sure to use a large pan and don't walk away. Hot sugar is dangerous!

Step 3. Boil until a candy thermometer shows 235-240 F. If you don't have a candy thermometer, you can drop a little syrup into a glass of cold water. If it forms a ball you can pick up with your fingers, it's done.

Step 4. Remove your snow pan from the freezer and place on a table. Use a spoon for the syrup and dribble small medallion shapes into the snow. You can also make fun shapes, like curlicues and letters. The syrup will harden almost immediately into candy. Make sure to let them cool completely before you touch them!

03/28/2011

My bookbinding adventure began with a walk down a blustery alleyway at the Portland Company Complex on Fore Street in Portland’s Old Port. The building looked deserted, aside from the chirping of the birds living in the eaves. But Strong Arm Bindery’s studio is alive and well, tucked away on the second floor of the Complex, in a brick and stone building that once served as storage for a foundry.

The studio space is vintage-cool. Light floods the room through floor to ceiling windows. The shelves that line one wall are original foundry storage shelves, and also provide good climbing for Dirty Girl, Strong Arm’s kitty mascot. (Dirty Girl is named for her penchant for rolling in the dirt.) Martha Kearsley, the owner of the Bindery, greeted me at the door and immediately made me feel at home.

The two-day workshop I decided to try was an intro to the classic case binding. I was excited, but a little nervous as well. I'd never bound anything before and I didn't know how I'd ever assemble a pile of paper, cover board, waxed linen, and book cloth into anything that looked remotely attractive. But I had faith in Martha, and she proved to be an excellent instructor. She knows her stuff—she learned the art of bookbinding and restoration 18 years ago at the North Bennett Street School in Boston, and she's been in business for 12 years. She explained and demonstrated every step carefully and had no problem repeating anything when I inevitably asked. She also has a great sense of humor and put up with the, "Oh my GOD I'M MAKING A BOOK!" outbursts I'd have every so often.

The workshop felt like therapy. As Martha brought us through measuring and cutting, folding signatures, sewing the signatures into a text block, and building a case for the cover, the outside world disappeared for a little while and I relaxed into the work. The studio space was soothing as well, and I loved having Dirty Girl around, checking out our work and winding through our legs and asking to come in and go out every few minutes, as cats do.

And...I'm really pleased with the finished product!

Martha will be offering new workshops soon at Strong Arm in non-adhesive binding and box making. I'll definitely be checking them out!

I took a bazillion pics in the course of two days, but here are a few:

03/16/2011

I had to blog this...these photos completely blew me away. These books are works of art by Brian Dettmer, carved using knives, tweezers, and surgical tools, layer by painstaking layer. The results are amazing!!!

Here's the link to a blog with more mind blowing pics. Check it out, it's worth it! I'm definitely a fan.

03/06/2011

There I was, standing in my kitchen, in the full throes of a cabin fever fit, staring up at this gorgeous jar that a friend of mine bought for me years ago. I've always loved it but I've never found a good use for it. I gave it a perch on top of my kitchen cabinet, and it's just hung out up there, watching me cook, clean, and dance around in my bathrobe in the mornings. I don't know why the word "terrarium" occurred to me as I stared at it. I don't even know why I was staring at it. Regardless, the idea for a terrarium hatched in my noggin and after researching how to put one together, I launched a creative project this weekend in hopes of bringing a little spring indoors. Here's what you'll need to do if you'd like to make one, too!

Stuff you'll need:

• A large glass container with a lid.

• Gravel for drainage. You can also use pretty glass pieces or broken crockery. (I bought pea gravel at Michael's Crafts in the floral section.)

• Activated charcoal (I bought something called Activated Filter Carbon at the pet store in the fish section. The fish dude assured me it was the same thing.)

• Small plants. Cacti or succulents work well.

1. Wash the glass jar and gravel with hot water and a couple of drops of bleach, and dry all thoroughly with paper towels.

2. Carefully spread a layer of gravel at the bottom of the jar.

3. Add a layer of activated charcoal. Hint: roll up a newspaper page and use it as a funnel...this stuff is VERY dusty and black and gets everywhere if you don't funnel it!

4. Add a layer of moss. Be sure to check the sides of the jar to see if your layers look pleasing to you.

5. Add a layer of potting soil. Pull the plants out of their containers, separating them if needed, loosening roots, and removing excess soil from the roots.

6. Add the plants to the terrarium, arranging them how you'd like. Give them a little room to grow. Add more potting soil to cover roots and support the plant, press the soil firmly. (Water lightly..too wet and you'll have a bog when you put the lid on the container.)

7. Add decorative elements, like little ceramic or resin lizards, gnomes, snails, etc. I used rocks and shells we picked up from a vacation, but I washed them first with a drop of bleach to be sure I didn't introduce any funky weirdness to the terrarium. E thought her four foot long rubber snake would look awesome in there, but I had to explain that there wouldn't be enough room left for the plants.

In hindsight, I would have used a much bigger jar, or tinier plants. But it was cathartic to get our hands dirty and work with natural materials. The potting soil held the aroma of spring gardening and plants always make me happy!

If you try this out at your place, send me a pic! I'd love to see what you create. Here are a few more shots:

Create!

The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out. Every mind is a building filled with archaic furniture. Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it. ~Dee Hock

Story Changes Everything...

Story is a map. The map that gets one person through gets the next person through. We depend on story to learn from each other, to inspire values-based action, to imagine the new ways forward. ~ Christina Baldwin